Ford has named Raj Nair vice president of operations for Asia Pacific and Africa while Jeffrey Wellman was appointed executive director of purchasing for the region.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Both took up their new roles on 1 August but the automaker has only just made the announcement.
They are now based in the Asia Pacific and Africa headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand. Nair reports to John Parker, executive vice president, Asia Pacific and Africa while Wellman reports both to Nair and Tony Brown, Ford’s group vice president of global purchasing.
Nair is now in charge of product development, manufacturing, purchasing, quality and information technology in Asia Pacific and Africa while Wellman oversees purchasing and supply chain management across the region.
The appointments were announced soon after Ford said it would add Fiesta production at its Auto Alliance facility in Rayong, Thailand, where products currently include Ford and Mazda brand one-tonne pickup trucks for most markets world-wide outside North America.
“The addition of Raj and Jeff to our APA leadership team, and their respective contributions, will be critical to driving the successful and ongoing expansion of our operations in the region,” said Parker.
“Each brings an extensive resume of experience and knowledge within [Ford], and I’m confident their leadership will be a key ingredient in the overall future direction of our business.”
Nair joined the automaker in 1987, and has held a number of senior positions manufacturing, product development and purchasing. Prior to his current role, he was executive director, commodity business planning, North America, where he led a cross-functional team responsible for improving material cost competitiveness. He was previously executive director, North American product development, responsible for the engineering and development for all truck and SUV programs.
His first role at Ford was as body and assembly operations launch engineer and he has held various positions on more than 11 vehicle launches in 13 assembly plants. Posted to Europe, he was the vehicle operations launch manager for the 1996 European Fiesta and subsequently responsible for all Europe launches including the 1999 Focus, 2000 Transit and 2001 Mondeo.
Wellman joined Ford in 1981, and has held various management positions in purchasing. Prior to his current role, Wellman served as director, global facilities, materials and services purchasing, where he was responsible for the procurement of non-production commodities and services globally.
For nearly two years, Wellman was a purchasing director in the Americas production purchasing organisation, where he was responsible for divestitures, including transactions associated with Automotive Components Holdings and Visteon. He also served as global power train purchasing director, based in North America.
